As Britain enters an age of austerity, the road network is already creaking in some places; government and local authorities – which, after all are responsible for the bulk of the nation's roads – will need to look for ever more innovative ways of funding the creation of new roads and upkeep of existing routes.
"The fact is that motorists fund central coffers to the tune of £45bn a year through driving taxes," says RAC motoring strategist Adrian Tink. "Less than a quarter of that money is ploughed back into the roads. And for that, motorists are getting a very poor product."
What a difference four years makes. In December 2006, the former boss of British Airways Sir Rod Eddington delivered a long-awaited report. The previous year, he had been asked by the Treasury and the Department for Transport (DfT) to produce a long-term strategy for the UK's transport infrastructure, with special reference to increasing the UK's productivity.
Intense pressure
Among his recommendations, Eddington came out strongly in favour of road pricing – various ways of charging for road use – describing it as "an economic no-brainer" that could be worth up to £28bn a year by 2025. For local authorities, for many of whom roads are one of their largest assets, road pricing raises the tempting prospects of a new revenue stream that could augment council tax receipts, which are coming under intense pressure from central government.
Meanwhile, Tink is adamant that in reality, that prospect is grim: "The chances of road pricing happening are next to zero. Politically it is a very toxic subject." Following Eddington's report, almost 2 million people signed a petition on the No 10 website against road pricing.
Certainly the road haulage industry would kick up a major fuss if further charging were to be introduced. "We pay enough already, thank you very much, so having to pay additional fees would be a very bitter pill to swallow," says Road Haulage Association chief executive, Geoff Dunning.
Truck driver Paul McManus says: "It's an utter disgrace that our livelihood is being taxed. Moving something from A to B is crucial to many businesses and adding an extra tax to moving goods is as good as effectively putting me out of business. Something needs to be done."
The government is also understood to be looking at ways of charging foreign haulage firms for the use of UK roads. A British truck doing about 100,000 miles a year contributes £30,000 in fuel duty to the UK Treasury. On the DfT's own reckoning, foreign-registered heavy goods vehicles pay just 0.008p a km – meaning the Treasury misses out on almost £250m in revenues every year.
Cost of upgrading
Foreign trucks travel an average of 649km a year in the UK, according to the DfT, arriving with an average of 760 litres of fuel and leaving with 480 litres but purchasing fewer than 10 litres in the UK. Some new British roads, meanwhile, are likely to be toll roads, but that will not cover the cost of upgrading existing infrastructure.
Some safety campaigners, meanwhile, have called for the creation of a transport regulator, involving both industry and road users, suggesting that such an independent body might also help improve the provision of funding. The government, however, has played down the chance of that happening as there is already the DfT.
Matthew Lugg, chair of the UK Roads Board, believes that road pricing is inevitable at some stage. "The current roads budget is £5bn. In the forthcoming spending review we are looking at between 25% and 50% cuts. We need to look at the current tax regime and how road maintenance is paid. If we don't receive adequate funding, with the increased levels of congestion on our roads in the future, we will compromise road safety."
